Pages

Monday, March 26, 2012

VINEPEARL Land (waterpark) and Nha Trang

Tim: Nha Trang was definitely a more populated area. The beach was lined with huge hotels including Sheraton, Marriott, etc.. We went to the outskirts of town and got a cheap place for $8 a night. We arrived late in the afternoon and took a walk on the beautiful beach. Later in the evening we found dinner at Coyote Mexican Restaurant which served the best Mexican food we have had in Asia so far. Fajitas, Tacos, and Nachos, and $0.50 beers.

Our Lonely Planet Guidebook lead us on to VINEPEARL Land. It is located on an island 4 km offshore from Nha Trang. Access to the park is by ferry or the longest over water suspended cable car. The cable car was suspended up to 70 meters above the water in places. The water park was much more exciting than the one we visited in Bangkok. There were as many as 20 decent water slides, some many that required an intertube to use. There was also a wave pool and a beautiful white sand beach with imported sand. Even so it was amazing.

After getting our fill of water slides we dried off and went to the bumper cars. I would have to say they were the best bumper cars that I have ever been in. Mostly because they actually went pretty fast and a full speed head on collision with someone almost caused whiplash. Three times on the bumper cars was enough. There was also and expansive video arcade. Even at 27 I still like video arcades. Best of all, every arcade game was on free play so it was free with the admission cost.

After a while we also visited the water show that was put on one per evening. It was actually very good. Not quite on the same immense scale as the Belagio Fountains in Las Vegas, but the show was more interacate with four different light colors and seven different pieces of music water danced too. The fountains were in front of a 2000 seat open auditorium with very loud speakers. We ended up staying at the park for 10 hours, arriving at 10:30 am and leaving the park at 8:30 PM. By the time we returned to our hotel room we were exhausted. We were having so much fun in the water that we did not take the time for photos.

On the down side, Joe and I each noticed a small rash developing on our back after the water park. Looks like we aquired some jacuzzie rash due to the lack of chlorine in the water. Oh well, it was worth the fun!

Amber: Vinpearl Land was quite the aderaline rush. After driving motor scooters along A1 for two weeks straight, I wasn't sure how much more I needed. The first slide we did we had to climb up about six flights of stairs. The stairs were made out of grating, so the view down as we climbed up was... scary. The slide consisted of six different side by side lanes that did a few jumps as it shot down into a pool with us laying face first on a mat. The attendant told us to kneel on the mat as we went down. Grabbing ahold of the handles on the front of the mat, we took off down the slide. Water splashed us in the eyes as we went over the jumps and all three of us hit ourselves in the face with the mats when we slamed into the pool at the bottum. It could have been worse. One of the two ladies that came down after us flipped up a little out of her lane and cracked her head pretty good on the side of the slide as she entered the 'breaks' pool. We opted to move on.

The next one we did was even taller and you did feet first, without a mat. Tim and Joe took off down the two slides. Both of the men I'm traveling with are adereline junkies. I stood frozen between the two, tryind to decide which one was less likey to cause bodily harm or death. Finally I took a step towards the one Joe went down. It started out less steep as it led up to a small incine before dropping off into a pool. Tims went straight down. Steeply. The attendant must have senced my delema as he shook his head and pointed at the slide I was inching towads. "Scary". I pointed at Tims slide and he smiled patiently and nodded. He's probably sick of hearing people scream all day, but I did any way as I went down. I hit the water at the bottum of the slide so hard I almost lost my suit top. Later in the day we watched as one of the larger patrons went barreling down the slide and hit the water, causing him to flip half way out of the slide and skin his side.

The next one we did was by far the most terrifying of the water park. So we did it five times each. The "Tsuname" was in the shape of an inverted horse shoe. You started out at the top of a thirty foot straight drop off in an intertube, did a slight free fall as you did so and your weight caused you to slide back up the other side. Then you would drop backwards and do it over again as you slowly slid away from the enterance, ending by dumping into a pool. Tim even uttered a slight sound as he went off it the first time. Later he told me I scream like a girl, as I screamed every time I went. You could go in solo, double or in a triple intertube. I was scared by myself, terrified in the front of Tim, and awed when I saw a Russian dad and his two daughters, no more than seven and nine, launch off. The attendant had a nice little way of kicking your tube out of the enterance to give you even more speed. One of them even made it so that you would spin around and go backwards as you free fell. I told him I'd have none of that, and went facing forward all five times, thank you very much.

The rest of the slides were calm in comparison. We enjoied the beach front and swimming in the ocean, had an aweful lunch that makes McDonalds seem healthy (both in ingredients and food handeling practices) then headed for the arcade. Tim and Joe were like kids in a candy shop when they found out the games were covered in the admition fee. They were high qulity, and an endless selection of racing games, tank games, army games, assasion games... anything and everything, and you never had to quit. I was less than thrilled about the video games, but the bumper cars were so fun! We plaied three rounds, and I have to say that driving a motor scooter in Vietnam has made my bumper car driving quite impressive. People in Alaska better watch out when I get back. I drive even more like a crazy person!